


Sadness Was Never Shunned?

by Disgust-of-Riley (Anonimousli_Kanonical)



Category: Inside Out (2015)
Genre: Analysis, Character Analysis, Commentary, Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:07:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27936029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonimousli_Kanonical/pseuds/Disgust-of-Riley
Kudos: 1





	Sadness Was Never Shunned?

After watching "Inside Out" and writing some drafts for a fanfic, I was faced a question: what _is_ the purpose of sadness? The movie leaves it pretty vague ("They came to help because of Sadness." - Joy), so in my fanfic I simply put the first thing I could think of: sympathy. But, after some more thinking on the subject, I realized something: in reality, sadness had never been shunned in the first place.

When you think of emotions, the first two are joy (or happiness) and sadness, aren't they? This makes perfect sense, considering that these are the ones society  
demands of you the most. If you aren't happy, you're sad, most people would immediately say. After thinking it through, you might say, "That's not  
necessarily true," and think of anger and fear, maybe disgust, but, once again, joy and sadness are the first to come to mind. 

You may not think society demands your sadness, but it does. When you get hurt, how does someone who wants to help act? When discussing an issue with a friend, how do you feel? When anything thing is wrong, what do you express? I bet you can guess what the answer is - sadness. My theory is that sadness is the emotion we use to communicate when something is wrong. A little kid cries when his mother can't afford a toy, because to him it is wrong - Mommy and Daddy can magically get everything so why aren't they getting it for me now? This theory also deciphers Joy's quote "They came to help because of Sadness."

Society ask sadness of you any time you must deal with problems. If you yell angrily at someone they're going to tell you to calmdown and get a hold of yourself. This can also can be described as focusing your attention on the problem and not on letting your feelings about it out. "Crying helps me obsess over the weight of life's problems," - Sadness. If you point out what went wrong and why and who's fault it can be tracked down to, even if you are right, you're going to be told you are being rude to whoever you blame the issue on and that you are not considering their feelings. Panicking about the situation will lead to some words about overreacting being directed at you. This limits your options to simply being sad.

The only way sadness ever seems to be shunned is when someone is trying to get rid of it. The reason they try to do so is because when someone is laughing and smiling, it usually means said problem isn’t bothering them anymore, so they fixed it. However, trying to make them feel better about the situation isn't always the best way to fix it; tackling the problem instead of offering a distraction is usually what that person needs. This is the lesson Joy learns in “Inside Out”, that Sadness is needed in order to bring Joy (and joy) back into life.

So essentially, sadness was never shunned in the first place, and neither was Sadness. Her job was always to let everyone know when something was wrong, and that is what makes her important. Although Riley didn’t know this, most people, though they can’t put it in words, do know this and understand its great value. They will let Sadness do her best to make the situation better, so Joy can pick up wherever needed, and happiness will return.


End file.
